Why Maps Matter in GIScience

or Real An important characteristic of maps is the fact that they represent selections from reality in an abstract way. Especially for presentation purposes, maps that look ‘empty’ might even work better than maps with an overloaded view. In an exploratory mode, an overloaded map could be very representative for the topic being studied, and via interactive selection and filtering techniques the user can ‘drill-down’ to the information thought relevant (Shneiderman, 1998). The ‘selection/abstraction’ characteristic is not only challenged by exploration, but also by new viewing environments such as virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) (Dykes et al., 1999a; Unwin and Fisher, 2001; Sherman and Craig, 2002). These allow a different view on reality and, in addition, one can become completely absorbed in this ‘reality’. VR and AR require realism in the imagery used, which can be obtained via state of the art data collection techniques, such as laser scanning 86 The Cartographic Journal